Bradley’s appointment by GOP Gov. Rick Perry was under consideration by the committee, which ended up recommending confirmation to the full Senate with a 4-2 vote along party lines. Ellis isn’t a committee member, but was allowed to ask questions by senatorial courtesy.

Bradley, the tough-on-crime Williamson County prosecutor, was questioned repeatedly by Ellis over criticism that the commission under his leadership has sought to evade public scrutiny and has not worked as quickly as it should have on cases including the high-profile case of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was executed in 2004 in the arson deaths of his children. Perry refused to delay his execution and has since refused to release the clemency report he received before it was carried out. Serious questions have been raised about the arson evidence.

Among other points, Bradley has been criticized by some for calling Willingham a “guilty monster.”

Bradley showed no second thoughts over that comment today and said he has worked to bring certainty to the process with specific written policies and procedures about accepting and screening case and putting in place definitions of negligence and misconduct.

The prosecutor said his “guilty monster” comment was a reaction to advocacy groups that he contended were misleading the public about the purpose of the commission reviewing the Willingham case, which he emphasized was to investigate the science, not show guilt or innocence.

Bradley also suggested that Ellis’s position as chairman of the Innocence Project presents a conflict with his senatorial duty to “perhaps” look at things in “a more neutral light.”

Ellis asked whether Bradley has a conflict as a prosecutor, saying, “After all, you are John Bradley, God’s gift to us.”

Bradley said Ellis’s sarcasm is “evidence of your bias.”

Ellis said he keeps an open, but but that he’d be hard-pressed to vote to confirm Bradley, whose current term ends in a few months.

The two said they’ve known each other for about two decades.Bradley is a former general counsel for the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.